A constable tapped on the door and told them the Inspector was ready. Still laughing, they made their way downstairs.
The Inspector showed them into the room where Vey sat waiting. 'Ladies, this is High Wizard Vey. High Wizard Vey, you've already met my pathologist, Maggie, and this is my sister Lizzie.'
'Lovely to see you again, High Wizard Vey,' Thordric's mother said, sitting down.
'Yes, a pleasure…' Lizzie began, and then stopped dead: her breath caught in her chest. She gaped at Vey; he gaped back at her, equally shocked.
'What's the matter, Lizzie?' Thordric asked her, glancing between her and Vey.
'He-he's my son,' she said.
Chapter Nineteen: The Truth
The room was silent. Everyone was looking at Lizzie and Vey in utter disbelief. Vey stood up and walked around his side of the room, sighing deeply. His usually calm face was screwed up in anguish, and he stopped and opened his mouth several times but nothing came out.
Thordric broke the silence, curiosity and concern fuelling him to speak. 'Is it true, Vey?' he asked quietly. Vey stopped and looked at him, then silently gave a slight incline of his head, his tears splashing to the floor.
'I-I would never have known,' the Inspector said. 'My own nephew! I didn't even recognise you.'
'That was the point, Uncle. I thought that if you couldn't recognise me, then it was unlikely mother would either,' he said, his voice trembling slightly.
'You thought that I wouldn't recognise you?' Lizzie said. 'I know it's been nearly twenty years, Eric, but I would have recognised you even if it'd been fifty years, or a hundred. You are my son, and a mother always knows her son.'
'Even when he uses magic to try and grow his hair and ends up looking like some kind of witless monster,' Thordric's mother said, trying to lighten the mood. She shot Thordric a glance and he grinned, while the Inspector raised an eyebrow at him. But neither Lizzie nor Vey seemed to have heard.
'Why did you run, Eric?' Lizzie asked softly, her eyes wet. She walked closer to him, but he stepped back slightly.
'I had to, mother,' Vey said. 'You know what they did to father. I had to get them back.'
'But didn't you realise how dangerous that was? If they killed your father, didn't it cross your mind that they might have done the same to you?'
'It wasn't dangerous, mother. They didn't even know about me. How do you think I got into the Council in the first place?' Vey said.
'I have no idea, Eric, why don't you tell us?' she said, her voice hardening. The Inspector decided it was time to cut in.
'Lizzie, let's all go upstairs. I'll have some tea made and we can all sit down and talk about this in a civilised manner,' he said. He strode over to the door and held it open for them to walk through. Thordric's mother went first, taking Lizzie by the arm and leading her out. The Inspector escorted them up, leaving Thordric to walk with Vey. He kept silent, unsure of what to say, but it was Vey that spoke.
'My mother taught you how to use your magic, didn't she?' he asked, but it was more of a statement than a question. 'She's a good teacher; you must be a fast learner too, to be at the level you're at and still just a boy.'
'Sh-she told me about you,' Thordric blurted. 'How you ran away just after your father died. We found your flute and his diary of magic in the safe at the end of the house.'
'I see. I didn't think she would take anyone up to that house once I'd gone, least of all someone with as much magic as you have. So, you broke the illusion then?'
'Yes. She'd just been teaching me how to make them to help with the case. When I looked at it properly I knew something wasn't right about it. I had to try and lift it.' Thordric felt slightly embarrassed. 'I didn't mean to go through your private things.'
They went into the Inspector's office, but Thordric was sent back out again to make tea and bring in Jaffa cakes. He tried to listen to what was being said, but all he could hear was a soft sobbing. When he went back in, the enormous pile of Jaffa cakes wobbling dangerously on the tray, he found them all silent and staring at each other. He served them all tea quickly and then sat down in the chair nearest the door.
'So, Eric,' Lizzie said at long last, her voice harder that any of the ice freezing up the streets outside. 'Why don't you explain how you became part of the Council?'
Vey took a large gulp of tea and ate one of the Jaffa cakes before speaking. 'When I ran away, I went straight to the Wizard Council Training Facility. I made up a story about having been in a coma since I was a child and that I had just discovered that I had magic powers. I told them no-one else in the family had ever had magical powers and, as everyone knows, only full wizards can come from families with no previous magic, so they believed me. They started me off with the basics, but I already knew most of the magic they were teaching and so I soon caught up with the others my age.'
'But you never gave any signs of having any magic, even when your father tried to teach you,' Lizzie said. Her hair had fallen out of place again and now cascaded around her shoulders, but she took no notice.
'I'd known I had powers since I was a toddler. I accidently turned one of the Watchem Watchems into a tree once; although I was in such a panic about it that I somehow turned it back. It wasn't terribly happy with me, as I recall. Kicked me in the shin. Anyway, I didn't tell you or father about it because I didn't want to be a wizard, full or half. All I wanted was to be normal, but father believed in me regardless and so I used to practice the magic he tried to teach me at night so you wouldn't know.' He took another gulp of tea. 'Then after…after it happened, I found his diary and I knew that Kalljard had done it somehow.'
'So you joined the Council so that you could challenge him?' the Inspector asked.
'That's how it started out, yes. But the more I learnt about him and about the Council, the more I knew that something so childish wouldn't have been what father wanted. I began making plans to try and change the way the Council thought instead.'
Lizzie took in a deep breath. 'Ten years I searched for you, Eric. Ten years I made myself sick with worry, not knowing whether you were dead or alive until my heart and my mind couldn't take it any longer. I stopped looking because it was too painful, and since then I've been trying to rebuild my life. And now I find you, I-I have no words.'
'I'm sorry, mother. I truly am,' Vey said. Thordric looked into his eyes and saw that he meant it too. 'I wanted to contact you, so many times; I started to write letters, but it was no good. I couldn't risk them finding out who I really was. My cause was too important for that.'
Lizzie began to sob silently, and Thordric's mother gave her a handkerchief to dry her eyes with. Vey started to sob too, and soon even the Inspector had great tears dropping of his nose to land in his moustache. Thordric shifted uncomfortably, feeling very much the outsider on what was now a family reunion. Then a thought struck him.
'Vey,' he said, now oblivious to the tears. 'Rarn told me something when I interrogated him that I have to ask you about.' His mother shot him a contemptuous look, but Vey looked up at him almost glad at the interruption.
'What was it, Thordric?' he said.
'He-he told me that you mixed the potion that Kalljard wanted the Council members to always drink,' Thordric said.
Vey straightened up, wiping the last of the tears from his eyes. 'Yes, Thordric, I did. He told me what the ingredients were and said I was to fill six cauldrons full of it a week. He made me drink a cupful first, so I wouldn't question his wishes. I managed not to drink it again, but the wizards always asked for it and so I carried on making it. I never realised the full effect that it had.'
'So he ensnared you just as much as everyone else,' Thordric said.
'I'm sorry to say he did,' Vey said sadly.
'This idea of yours, to change the way the Council thinks, exactly how were you planning to go about it?' the Inspector asked, wringing the tears out of his moustache.
'I wanted to get close to Kalljard, to find out how he thought and what motiva
ted him. I thought that if I could do that, then I could find out why he had father killed and, the closer I would be to Kalljard, the more the Council would trust me. I wanted to make it seem as though Kalljard was having a change of heart and was beginning to see that half-wizards are just as capable of magic as full wizards are.'
'And did you get close to him?'
'Yes, moderately so but, he didn't seem to trust me as much as he trusted Rarn,' Vey replied.
'Perhaps he figured out what you were up too,' Thordric said. He got out the paper detailing Kalljard's plot. 'We found this on Kalljard's desk. It had a pretty strong illusion spell on it, and so far, only Rarn has given away that he'd seen it before. I'm convinced that none of the other Wizards knew anything about it.' He held it out for Vey to look at. Vey read it and his face hardened. 'I have to ask you, Vey. Did you know about this?'
Thordric already knew the answer, but he had to let the others know too. Vey looked at him. 'I did,' he said quietly.
They all stared at him; the Inspector, his brow furrowed and his moustache curling; Lizzie, her eyes strong but damp; Thordric's mother, her eyebrows arched with intense curiosity.
'That wasn't all we found in Kalljard's room. There was a mirror, disguised as a wardrobe, and on the desk was a pot plant known as Winsome Sunbeam…'
'Or Oppulus Nuvendor, if you want to give it its technical name,' Vey interrupted. He sighed and looked at all the faces staring at him. 'You haven't missed anything, have you Thordric? Yes, I knew about the plant and the mirror.'
'Would you like me to tell them what happened, or are you going to tell the story yourself?' Thordric asked, offering Vey some more Jaffa cakes. Vey took a handful and ate them all in quick succession.
'I'll tell them,' he said, hiccoughing. He stood up and paced around the office, trying to find the words. His heavy robes rustled with each step. 'Rarn, who normally cleaned Kalljard's chambers, was ill, so Kalljard asked me to do it instead. He said he wanted his mirror moved and to be replaced with a wardrobe that was to arrive that day. He then left, allowing me to snoop around. That's when I saw what he was planning and it made my blood freeze. Everything I was trying to achieve was meaningless after I saw it. He was willing to put thousands— and there truly are thousands— of half-wizards to death. I couldn't let that happen.'
He stopped, taking a deep breath, and ate some more Jaffa cakes. His hands shook slightly. 'I understand how you felt, Vey,' Thordric said, trying to ease the High Wizard's conscience. Vey nodded appreciatively and carried on.
'I switched the mirror with the wardrobe as he had asked, but I kept the mirror stored nearby so that I could put my hands on it if I needed to. Rarn had given Kalljard the plant as a gift the day before, though I doubt that worm knows what its properties are. I took a cutting from it and spent the next two days grinding it down and making it into a liquid. Then I put the mirror back in the room while Kalljard was out and waited for him to come back for his afternoon tea. I managed to stop Rarn from coming in by telling him that Kalljard had requested that he iron his ceremonial robes; as no-one else was allowed in, I knew I wouldn't be discovered.
'When Kalljard finally did walk in, I pretended I had only just gone in to lay out his tea and sandwiches. I thought it was a rather weak excuse to be honest, but he seemed to believe it. Anyway, he ignored me and went to trim his beard. He noticed the mirror then, but I had already injected him with the Winsome Sunbeam by use of a magic dart…'
'A magic dart?' Thordric asked.
'Yes,' Vey said, now smiling. 'I came up with it myself. All you have to do is trap whatever liquid you have inside a sort of force field, which allows you to throw it from a distance and leaves no trace afterwards.'
'But we found a puncture mark on Kalljard's head, covered by the brown mark,' Thordric objected.
'Almost no trace, then,' Vey said. 'Either way, it had the desired effect. Within minutes he was hallucinating so badly that he thought his own reflection was a monster and tried to cast it away using a defensive spell. In his drugged state it rebounded, and caused his skin to harden like leather. It wasn't exactly what I'd planned, but I knew it would put him out of action long enough for me to destroy his plans and to re-organise the Council.'
'But you didn't know it would react with his potion, did you?' Thordric's mother said, crossing her legs. Her red high heels glinted in the light.
'No, ma'am, I didn't,' Vey said. He sat down heavily in the chair and hung his head. 'I didn't mean for it to kill him, I just wanted him out of the way for a while so I could make things right.'
Lizzie dried her eyes and stood up. Vey drew back, thinking she would rebuke him for what he'd done. Instead she knelt beside him and took his hands. 'It wasn't your fault, Eric. Kalljard was a vile, evil man. The world is much better off without him,' she said gently. Everyone in the room murmured in agreement with her, and Vey looked at them gratefully. 'Carry on, Eric, and tell us what happened next,' she said.
Vey cleared his throat. 'Well…the potion reacted within minutes and when I looked at him and discovered he was dead, I panicked. I laid him on the bed so it looked like he'd simply died while taking a nap and I cast the strongest illusion I could over his plans so no-one would suspect that he had been deliberately murdered. I covered up the puncture mark, and then I did the same with the mirror, but I heard footsteps near the door and had to rush it. The illusion held, but only just. Then I stood behind the door so that I could slip out after whoever it was had come in. As it was, it was Rarn coming back, and as soon as he saw the body he yelled for help and I doubled back through the door to see what was going on.'
Chapter Twenty: Decorating the Station House
The Inspector sent Rarn back to the Council; laden with an official report declaring that High Wizard Kalljard's death had been an unfortunate accident, not murder. No one was to be blamed for it; and High Wizard Vey would be on leave for a week due to the stress the investigation had caused him. Apologies were given to all the wizards detained.
Thordric thought that letting Rarn go back to the Council was far more than he deserved, considering his indifference to Kalljard's plans. He would have had him locked up for life, but as the Inspector said, it was for Vey to decide what to do with him.
As for Vey himself, everyone in the Inspector's office had unanimously agreed that he should be left to go free. In their eyes, he had acted accordingly for the good of the people, even if they didn't know it and, if it had been possible, the Inspector would have had him commended for it. This cheered Vey up dramatically and, with his calm demeanour having returned, made the withered rose on the Inspector's desk return to full bloom.
'Mother,' Vey said to Lizzie. 'I know I never wrote, or let you know I was alive even, but…'
Lizzie put up her hand to silence him. 'Come home for a week, Eric. You look like you could use a decent meal.'
Vey grinned and turned to Thordric. 'If my Uncle doesn't need you, I would like to invite you back for dinner. There's something I need to discuss with you…'
'And the snow in my garden needs melting again, boy,' Lizzie said, trying to keep a straight face.
That evening, Thordric sat in Lizzie's kitchen again, in front of a great pile of food. He and Vey had spent the rest of the day at her house, since the Inspector had let him leave after lunch.
They had melted all the snow in both the front and back gardens and then Lizzie had sent them upstairs to finish painting the room she and Thordric had started. Vey had frowned at the colours she had chosen, but he hadn't dared suggest that they were too bright. With both of them at it, it took barely fifteen minutes to finish. Of course, as Thordric had already found out, Lizzie always had more work to be done. She sent them up to the loft to clean, and when they got there Thordric coughed in distaste. It was thick with dust, and cobwebs loomed mere inches above their heads.
'Where shall we start?' Vey began, but his eyes caught a large stack of books in front of him. 'These…these are my father's. I'd f
orgotten all about them.'
'Really? What are they about?' Thordric asked excitedly, his eyes lighting up.
'I believe,' Vey said, picking one of the books up and swiping off the dust. 'That they're more books on the potions he created, and properties of plants found around the town and near the river.' He waved his hand slightly and cleared all the dust from the rest of the books and the floor around them, before sitting down to read.
Thordric waited a moment, wondering if he would get back up to start working, but it was clear he was lost deep in the pages. Sighing, Thordric levitated him upside down and Vey dropped the book in surprise.
'What are you doing?' he demanded, hastily holding his robes up so that his underclothes wouldn't show.
'Your mother won't be happy if we don't clean up here,' Thordric said, absently spinning Vey around.
Vey looked at him guiltily. 'Oh, yes…the cleaning…'
Three hours later and, after Thordric had had to levitate Vey another five times, they finally finished cleaning the loft. It looked unrecognisable; everything was visible and stacked in orderly piles, and they could now see that the walls were just as brightly painted as the room they had been painting earlier. They had even found more of Lizzie's husband's work, and with Vey laden down with as many books and scrolls as he could carry, they made their way downstairs to the kitchen.
The smell of Lizzie's cooking wafted down the corridor and after the stress of the morning they found they were ravenous. They were just about to sit at the table when she turned to them. 'May I ask what you two think you're doing?'
'We're simply sitting down for dinner,' Vey said, putting all the books and scrolls on the table. Lizzie arched her eyebrow so high that it seemed to merge with her hairline. Thordric caught the danger they were in immediately.
'Uh, actually, we were just about to put all these things away and then go and scrub up. We wouldn't want to sit down at the table still covered in dust, would we, Vey?' he said, hastily picking the books back up and nudging Vey to do the same. Lizzie smiled and watched them run out the room. When they returned, she looked them over, nodding her approval; only then did she finally serve their food.
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